City: Crews cleaning up 13K pounds of confetti

The combination of confetti and the crowd gathered for the Blackhawks celebration created quite a mess in the Loop.Chicago's Streets and Sanitation Department was tackling the clean-up later Friday afternoon.

As fans emptied the rally point at Michigan and Wacker, garbage filled the streets as far as the eye could see. A line of sanitation trucks was seen waiting for the people to disperse so they could enter the area.

The amount of debris was so overwhelming that some people were actually taking pictures of it.

"I don't want to be the guy cleaning up this mess," said fan Kerry Devine. "It's huge."

The Dept. of Streets and Sanitation tells ABC7 Chicago there were 13,000 pounds of confetti on the streets, and while crews got some help from onlookers -- one person's trash is another one's treasure--.most of the job Friday was the responsibility of the hundreds of sanitation workers out in force throughout the Loop.

"It's real bad, but we're going to get it done. Just watch," said sanitation Freda Clark.

"As fast as we can, as clean as we can because, obviously, we'll have to do another round tomorrow to get whatever we missed," Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Thomas Byrne said.

Crews started their work as soon as the last double-decker bus carrying the Stanley Cup crossed the parade start point at Wacker and Washington. They battled the crowds of people who streamed up and down the streets trying to get home.

For fans , it was time to get back onto the trains and or buses that brought them downtown. Despite extra resources from both the CTA and Metra, platforms were crowded all day with people trying to get in and out of the city.

"People with Stanley Cups, flags and all kinds of crazy things," said Linda Valentino, who was taking the Metra home. "We had a great time."

"Spent two hours waiting, battled the trains to get here for five minutes, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It was awesome," fan Brad Lewis told ABC7 Chicago.